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I promised a few weeks ago I would at least contribute a good reading list for the uninitiated in Vietnamese culture and history. While I meant to make good on this promise some time ago, I haven’t been exactly prudent about. Nevertheless, here is your list (or part of it). Continue reading →

Yes, I am back, no, I am not dead. Though I haven’t hardly posted, I’ve been working hard on coming up with things to post, and you can expect these over the next few weeks. What will this include? Obviously, something about Vietnam! Perhaps some ramblings about current events, and maybe some grumbling about work (??) It’ll be good, if for nothing else, the reading list you will gain, I promise.

A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to make my way to the Benjamin Franklin exhibit that’s in town for a couple of months. Being a total history nerd, and one interested especially in Franklin’s era, I have to say that this exhibit blew my mind. Continue reading →

This book by journalist Charles C. Mann is quite possibly the best popular American history written (that I’ve read, anyways, which isn’t saying much). Mann’s style is compelling and accessible, without sacrificing any of the depth of the ideas he conveys throughout his “retelling” of Native American history. Continue reading →

Well, it’s been about two years since I terminated Blogs Are Dumb. Boy, how things have changed since then. For starters, no longer do I feel that blogs are dumb; quite to the contrary, I believe that blogs can have their uses, both personally and for some sort of greater good, whatever that may be.

However, I would like to kick this blog off by creating more of a focus for it. My hope is that this mission statement will preserve this effort from the downward spiral Blogs Are Dumb suffered.

Therefore, let me spell it out:

1) The primary aim of this blog is to establish more of a web presence of myself (given my complete, voluntary, lack of said presence at the moment).
2) For content, I plan for this blog to not be simply the generic, personal diary that BAD was, but also something more: namely, my dream has been to share some of the more intellectual things I have read/viewed/come across, present my opinion, and (hopefully) spark intelligent dialogue with my (imaginary at this stage) readership.
3) This blog, hopefully, will act as a vehicle for my further self-edification in computers as well as my other many and varied pursuits.

What it basically all comes down to in the end, though, is I want to have fun with this blog. BAD, for whatever reason, became seriously un-fun, and this is something I am seriously committed to avoiding this go-round.